Emirates Match Official panels confirmed for HSBC SVNS 2025 and World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025

World Rugby has confirmed the 35 Emirates Match Officials who make up the men’s and women’s panels for HSBC SVNS 2025 and the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025.

Twelve unions are represented among the 17 officials named on the SVNS 2025 panels with just over half returning from the 2024 group to join the newcomers to the High-Performance Sevens Referee squads.

Eight of the officials graced the Olympic Games stage at Paris 2024, including Kat Roche (USA) who refereed the women’s gold medal match between New Zealand and Canada at the Stade de France on 31 July.

The men’s panel features five of these officials, including George Selwood (England) who has refereed on the women’s series for the last two seasons, with three on the women’s panel. Jess Ling (Australia) also returns for a second season having missed out on Olympic selection.

For the first time in history, there is an all-female panel for the women’s SVNS 2025.

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• Eight officials named on the men’s panel and nine on the women’s
• Ben Connor (Wales), Peter Martin (Ireland) and Evan Urruzmendi (France) named to their first SVNS panel, the latter two having refereed on the Challenger series in 2023 and 2024
• Five Paris 2024 officials in Francisco González (Uruguay), Nick Hogan (New Zealand), AJ Jacobs (South Africa), Tevita Rokovereni (Fiji) and George Selwood (England)
• This experienced quintet boast a combined total of 110 SVNS tournaments
• Tiana Anderson (New Zealand), Ella Goldsmith (Australia), Sunny Lee (Hong Kong China), Zoe Naude (South Africa) and Chloe Sampson (New Zealand) to debut on SVNS 2025
• Three Paris 2024 officials on women’s panel in Kat Roche (USA), Maria Latos (Germany) and Lavenia Racaca (Fiji).
• Together with Jess Ling (Australia) they boast 22 SVNS tournaments worth of experience between them

While nine of the 18 officials on the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025 panels are selected for the first time, there is one Paris 2024 referee among them in Craig Chan (Hong Kong China) who refereed on the women’s SVNS series last season.

VIEW CHALLENGER SERIES PANELS >>

• Nine officials named on both the men’s and women’s panels, representing a total of 11 different unions
• Ruairidh Campbell (Scotland), Julien Caulier (France), Franco Rosella (Italy) and Luis Fernández (Spain) make their Challenger debuts on the men’s panel.
• Craig Chan has refereed 17 SVNS tournaments, while Griffin Colby (South Africa) has one event to his name after refereeing in the women’s competition in Cape Town last season
• Maria Clotilde Benvenuti (Italy), Doriane Constanty (France), Alexandra Ferré (France), Emma Gallagher (Canada) and Hibiki Ikeda (Japan) are the debutants on the women’s panel
• Benvenuti is the younger sister of Beatrice Benvenuti, who refereed 16 world series tournaments between 2013-19

World Rugby High Performance Sevens Referee Manager Paddy O’Brien said: “I am delighted with the mixture of experience and up-and-coming talented referees selected. These are the first squads selected which not only service the series events but starts the four-year cycle towards having experienced referees available for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.”

HSBC SVNS 2025 will feature the best 12 men’s and 12 women’s teams in the world competing in seven iconic destinations played across seven months, kicking off in Dubai on 30 November- 1 December, 2024 and culminating with the HSBC SVNS World Championship 2025 in Los Angeles on 3-4 May at Dignity Health Sports Park, which will host the Olympic rugby sevens competitions in 2028.

Details of the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025 schedule will be confirmed soon.

For further information, visit www.svns.com.